The release states that a surveillance system is meant to inform and catalyze groups regarding a certain health problem, but there is no current surveillance system that operates on a national basis to integrate emerging data on chronic diseases, specifically cardiovascular and lung diseases.
The IOM recommended the Department of Health and Human Services create such a system with data in these five areas:
• Incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular and chronic lung disease over time.
• Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention factors.
• Health outcomes relating to changes in quality of life, direct medical costs and indirect medical costs.
• Local representative samples (such as at the substate or county level).
• Ethnicity, geographic region and socioeconomic status disparities.
Read the Institute of Medicine’s report on a proposed chronic disease surveillance system (pdf).
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